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Any writer mamas who publish nonfiction articles in magazines?


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I want to venture in this field. In fact, I already sent a pitch idea to Islands Magazine a few days ago. Does anybody have any tips for me? Books to read? I'm teaching myself with the following books so far:

 

Writer Mama

The Well Fed Writer

 

Are Lee Gutkind's books on creative nonfiction relevant, good books? Any suggestions and help would be appreciated :)

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to be totally honest, I had read books and thought I was a pretty good writer. Then I went to work for Textbroker. I made money while learning the trade and polishing my skills. That site and the editorial comments have tightened my writing and made it more professional.

 

That's how I improved.

 

Second, google the words "writer's guidelines" or "submission guidelines" you can also add in another keyword to help search for topics about which you can write. You can probably write for websites and webzines before you will make it into a print magazine.

 

Remember that even very small articles are worth something. Most of the money that I have made (I can easily make 400 a month on Textbroker if I work at it) on my site I have made in 7-10 dollar increments.

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Thank you, I had never heard of that site. My BA degree is in Communications/Public Relations (this was 13 years ago, mind you). I write good, old-fashioned press releases, but I need to tighten my writing and I'm interested in general, travel nonfiction and creative nonfiction, too.

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well, the travel section on the 4 star TB board generally has a good selection. Go sign up, and see what happens. Remember that TB uses AP style, which has a few odd quirks, so keep that in mind as you take your writing test. It may take a few weeks to get started, since they take a few weeks to get to your 1st 5 articles.

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Jenna Glatzer's book (it's spelled sort of like that, I'm sure. lol) is great. The title is 'Making a Real Living in Freelance WRiting."

 

the Well Fed Writer's second book "Back for Seconds' is good.

 

It's a tough market. Remember it is a numbers game, too...don't just send one or two queries a week. Send 75. ;)

 

Happy Writing!

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Thank you, I had never heard of that site. My BA degree is in Communications/Public Relations (this was 13 years ago, mind you). I write good, old-fashioned press releases, but I need to tighten my writing and I'm interested in general, travel nonfiction and creative nonfiction, too.

 

To refresh your nonfiction writing skills I'd read (re-read?) Strunk's The Elements of Style and Zinsser's On Writing Well. I write nonfiction regularly, and usually re-read both of these books every now and then.

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My best advice is to really spend time on your queries. I've edited several magazines, and 90 percent of the queries I got were immediate discards because they were about topics we'd already covered in a previous issue, they were too general, or they were completely off-topic for our audience (like pitching a story about homeschooling to a pregnancy magazine). Really dig into the publications you want to write for, get at least six months of back issues so that you aren't pitching things they just covered and you can get the hang of the magazine's voice, the kind of sources it likes to use, what the regular departments are ... Then really tailor your idea to the magazine you want to write for. Be specific, have an original angle, and make it clear to the editor why your idea is great for the magazine's readers and how it would fit into the magazine. If you make it clear that you understand the magazine and its readers, chances are the editor will remember you even if she doesn't bite for that particular query. And really, you want to get to the place where editors are assigning you stories without you having to pitch all the time!

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